All-day primary schooling in Ladenburg: where the debate stands
The town council is expected to decide in 2027 whether Ladenburg’s two primary schools will become bound all-day schools (gebundene Ganztagsschulen, where attendance in the afternoon is compulsory). A survey of parents, the results of which were presented to the education committee at the end of September, produced a clear majority in favour: 313 of 432 participating families (72 per cent) support a compulsory all-day offer, while 119 families (28 per cent) are against it.
The survey in detail
The response rate was 71 per cent according to the Mannheimer Morgen; the town administration treated the level of participation as a sound political guide. At the Astrid-Lindgren school 83 per cent of parents were in favour of the all-day model, at the Dalberg school 67 per cent. According to the administration, 77 per cent of those surveyed would like at least four days with seven hours of care each. Mayor Stefan Schmutz told the education committee: “Nothing is being decided today, this is about taking the temperature.” (Mannheimer Morgen, 29 September 2026)
What is planned
Since 1 September there has been a statutory entitlement to all-day care — 48 weeks a year, Monday to Friday, eight hours a day. The “Ladenburg model” envisages bound all-day schools at both sites: lessons and care on four days from 8 am to 3 pm, until 12.30 pm on Fridays, together with lunch and supervision for homework and learning. Unlike the present afternoon care, which is charged for, the offer would be free.
Provided the council agrees in 2027, the building and organisational preparations are to begin in 2028. In September 2029 the first site is to open as an all-day primary school, the second two years later. Which school comes first is as yet undecided, as is the question of whether both can in fact be converted. An information evening is to follow.
Both school teams have submitted initial plans. The Dalberg school has been working since last year with a steering group of teachers, parents and outside partners on a “school as a place of learning and living”. The Astrid-Lindgren school is planning a daily rhythm of lessons, learning periods, free time and quiet periods. Staffing and rooms remain open questions: where the children of the Dalberg school are to eat in future is unresolved, and the small, old gymnasium of the Astrid-Lindgren school is regarded as a problem.
What guides the FDP
Ernst Peters, chair of the local branch and of the FDP council group, addressed the question in a summer interview with the Mannheimer Morgen (7 September 2026). His conclusion: “We are for freedom of choice, but demand and the schools’ own plans are what count.”
For him the demand is not a matter of conjecture: 70 to 80 per cent of parents had registered a need for care when asked. Whether an all-day school makes sense must be decided in dialogue with the schools, on the basis of the plans they draw up. He was quoted in the education committee as saying: “Only a good school plan makes a successful all-day school possible.” (Mannheimer Morgen, 29 September 2026)
On the council the question is contested. According to the Mannheimer Morgen, the CDU, part of the SPD, the FDP and the BfL favour freedom of choice — on that account one school should remain a half-day school with afternoon care that is charged for. The Greens and the rest of the SPD support Mayor Schmutz, who wants to convert both sites.
For the FDP, two things remain decisive until the decision is taken: the demand from families, and the quality of the schools’ plans.
The quotations above are translations of remarks made in German and reported by the Mannheimer Morgen. The German original of this article is the authoritative version.